The 13th December, 2012, shall mark 75 years since the Japanese army entered Nanjing at the start of the unfolding of one of humanity’s greatest atrocities. This year, as every year, air raid sirens across Nanjing shall once again mourn their annual cry for the loss of 300,000 souls in 1937’s Nanjing Massacre.
If you have not lived in Nanjing on this fateful day previous, the morning sounds that greet you on 13th December shall come of a bit of a surprise, and to those not accustomed to World War II, an frighteningly eerie shock.
For perhaps two hours the sirens shall continue to cry out; yet you will see local people carrying on their working lives largely in respectful silence; save for cursory words of explanation to their out of town colleagues.
The 1937 population of Nanjing was approximately 1 million, and so it is fair to say that with the loss of 300,000 people, to this day every family in Nanjing has a tragic story to tell.
Numbers of survivors of the Massacre who remain alive are quickly dwindling; some estimates now put it as low as 87. There are those however, who remain committed to preserving their memory. Last year, with the help of younger relatives, many turned to Weibo to bring the story to the growing numbers who are ill-informed over the tragedy. Zhao Zhenhua wrote on her micro blog: “The sirens are taking me back to that miserable historic period. I pray for my compatriots who died in the tragedy, and I hope they know that I am enjoying a happy life today.” Other posts had photos of relatives from the time of the massacre and some told how they managed to escape the carnage.
With the significance of the 75th anniversary, this year we can expect a memorial service of great proportions. For the 74th anniversary, students and teachers and dozens of Chinese and Japanese monks took part in a vigil where, by the light of 3,000 candles, monks chanted sutras to commemorate the victims. The following morning, survivors and Chinese and Japanese monks assembled in front of a wall inscribed with the names of victims of the massacre to mourn the dead and pray for peace.
